Final arguments filed in TMT case

Parties in the ongoing Thirty-Meter Telescope contested case have submitted their final arguments for consideration by hearings officer Riki May Amano.

The Tuesday deadline for filing written arguments is the penultimate step before Amano makes her decision on the case, which will determine whether a conservation district use permit can be issued for the telescope project by the state Board of Land and Natural Resources. It is the second contested case on the matter.

The last step is filing challenges to arguments, which has a deadline of June 13.

Dan Dennison, Department of Land and Natural Resources senior communications manager, said in an email that four written arguments had been filed as of early Tuesday afternoon. At press time, three were available for online viewing, from the Temple of Lono, Deborah J. Ward and Dwight Vicente. Ward was one of the original six parties in the first contested case, which was held in 2011.

After that case, the BLNR approved issuing the permit. That decision was overturned by the state Supreme Court in 2015 because the approval vote took place before the contested case hearing.

The current case has 25 parties, but not all have participated in testimony to the same extent.

Oral testimony spanned more than four months and concluded in early March. The transcript of this portion of the hearing is 6,935 pages long.

The written arguments submitted so far ranged in length from 93 pages to four pages.

There is no exact date for when Amano, a retired judge, will make her decision.

Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.